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The resulting census will allow astronomers to determine the origin and the evolution of our Galaxy.<\/p>\n
Gaia will also uncover tens of thousands of previously unseen objects, including asteroids in our Solar System, planets around nearby stars, and exploding stars \u2013 supernovas \u2013 in other galaxies.<\/p>\n
To achieve these results, Gaia will carry two identical telescopes, each fitted with four mirrors (M1 to 4). A further two mirrors (M5 and 6) will send the light from these dual instruments into the same focal plane.<\/p>\n
![\"Z9\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Z95.jpg\")
The mirrors also have an unusual curved shape, which is calculated using a very precise mathematical formula so that there will be no distortion of the incoming light across the telescopes\u2019 field of view and at all wavelengths from blue to red.<\/p>\nNASA mission patches
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\u201cThe M1 mirrors have a collecting area about 11 times bigger than the primary mirror of its predecessor, ESA\u2019s Hipparcos astrometry spacecraft, enabling them to collect many more photons,\u201d said Jos de Bruijne, Deputy Project Scientist for Gaia.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe combination of size, smoothness and special shape is required to provide a wide angle of view \u2013 about 0.7 degrees \u2013 and a small wave front error that will give extremely sharp images of a billion stars in our Galaxy.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Z7\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Z74.jpg\")
Once into its mission phase, Gaia will monitor each of its target stars approximately 70 times over a five-year period and precisely chart their positions, distances, movements and changes in brightness.<\/p>\nBuilt by Astrium, the 2,120 kg \u2013 of which 743 kg is payload \u2013 spacecraft is expected to enjoy a five-year mission, with its full archive to exceed 1 petabyte in size \u2013 providing enough information to tackle many important problems related to the origin, structure and evolutionary history of the galaxy.<\/p>\n
\u201cGaia is a grand challenge to understanding our galaxy, to find out what it is made of and, thus, where we have come from,\u201d added David Southwood, Director of Science and Robotic Exploration at ESA.<\/p>\n
\u201cEurope alone has taken up the challenge. We therefore are very pleased to be launched by Arianespace.\u201d<\/p>\n
Launch Vehicle:<\/p>\n
The Soyuz-2-1 rocket family is a descendent of the R-7 Semyorka, the world\u2019s first intercontinental ballistic missile. The R-7 was designed by Sergei Korolev, and first flew in 1957. A modified version was used to launch the first satellite, Sputnik 1, on 4 October of that year.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Z77.jpg\")
The R-7 formed the basis for the Luna, Vostok, Voskhod, Molniya and Soyuz families of rockets, and to date all Soviet and Russian manned spaceflights have been launched using rockets derived from the R-7.<\/p>\nThe Soyuz, which first flew in 1966, was a modification of the Voskhod rocket featuring an upgraded and lighter telemetry system, and more fuel efficient engines. It was initially used to launch only Soyuz spacecraft; however with the introduction of the Soyuz-U in 1973 it began to launch other satellites as well.<\/p>\n
The Soyuz-U, which remains in service, is the most-flown orbital launch system ever developed, having made around 750 flights to date, plus around 90 more in the Soyuz-U2 configuration optimised to use synthetic propellant.<\/p>\n
The Soyuz-2 was developed from the older Soyuz models, and features digital flight control systems and modernised engines. It first flew in 2004, and this is its twelfth launch.<\/p>\n
Two variants are currently in service; the Soyuz-2-1a, and the Soyuz-2-1b which features an RD-0124 third stage engine which provides additional thrust.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Z83.jpg\" "\\"Z83\\"")
A third configuration, the Soyuz-2-1v, is currently under development and is expected to make its maiden flight later this month. It features an NK-33 engine in place of the RD-108A used on the core stages of the other configurations, and does not include the strapon boosters used by other configurations. Exclusive documentation on this vehicle was acquired by L2 (LINK).<\/p>\nThe Soyuz-2 forms the basis for the Soyuz-ST rocket, which made its maiden flight from Kourou in French Guiana. The Soyuz-ST is optimised to fly from Kourou, and also incorporates a flight termination system and a modified telemetry system.<\/p>\n
Soyuz\u2019 Fregat upper stage \u2013 as was used on this mission- is an autonomous, highly flexible orbital vehicle built by the Lavochkin Research and Production Association. It can be restarted up to 20 times in flight \u2013 enabling the system to carry out complex mission profiles.<\/p>\n
The launch phase lasted for near 42 minutes, ahead of spacecraft separation, involving two burns of the upper stage.<\/p>\n
The Launch Site:<\/p>\n
The Spaceport\u2019s Soyuz launch site combines the proven design elements from the long-existing site at Baikonur Cosmodrome with satellite integration procedures that are in concert with the spacecraft processing used for Ariane missions.<\/p>\n
![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/D3A.jpg\" "\\"New")
Located 12 kilometers northwest from the existing Ariane 5 launch complex, the Soyuz facility extends the Spaceport\u2019s operational zone further up the French Guiana coastline.<\/p>\nThe launch vehicle\u2019s assembly building is 92 meters long, 41 meters wide, and 22 meters tall, allowing the vehicle to be assembles horizontally, prior to rolling out to the launch site, which is configured after the Russian Baikonur and Plesetsk Cosmodromes, albeit with a new mobile launch service tower.<\/p>\n
The Soyuz\u2019 transfer to the Spaceport\u2019s launch zone is performed with the launcher riding horizontally atop a transporter\/erector rail car. Soyuz is then raised into position on the pad, and in contrast with the Baikonur Cosmodrome processing flow, is protected by a gantry that moves into place for payload integration.<\/p>\n
![\"Soyuz](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Z512.jpg\" "\\"Soyuz")
Arianespace had already conducted five Soyuz launches from French Guiana, beginning with the workhorse medium-lift vehicle\u2019s historic inaugural Flight VS01 at the Spaceport in October 2011 \u2013 which orbited two Galileo IOV (In-Orbit Validation) navigation satellites for Europe.<\/p>\nIt was followed by Flight VS02 inDecember 2011, carrying a mixed payload of France\u2019s Pl\u00e9iades 1A dual-use imaging platform, the Chilean SSOT observation satellite and four French ELISA micro-satellite demonstrators.<\/p>\n
Flight VS03 was performed in October 2012 with two more Galileo IOV spacecraft, and Flight VS04 occurred in December 2012 to deploy the Pl\u00e9iades 1B payload.<\/p>\n
The fifth mission involved the launch of four O3B satellites this summer.<\/p>\n
Images via ESA, Arianespace and L2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An Arianespace Soyuz ST-B rocket successfully launched the impressive Gaia space observatory from the Kourou Spaceport in French Guiana on Thursday. The launch \u2013 occurring on schedule at 9:12 am UTC \u2013 marks the beginning of an ambitious project to map a billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy. The Spacecraft: The Gaia spacecraft is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[498,3226,1302],"class_list":["post-39687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-arianespace","tag-gaia","tag-soyuz"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39687"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}